Technical Opinion on Sea Foam and Marvel Mystery Oil

[Dave Faria]

GM List. I've got a 2004 R1150RT with 73k miles that was an oil burner. It has some high speed pinging under load. I want to try either Sea Foam Engine Treatment or Marvel Mystery Oil to do a light decarbonization of the cylinders.

 

What I read several years ago was sulfur containing fuels can damage the Nicaseal cylinder linings. So I've tried to find chemical information on both the Sea Foam and Marvel with no luck. Anyone out there have any technical info on the cleaners.

 

I know BMW now sells it own version of Engine Treatment for $15/bottle. It is probably the Sea Foam relabelled.

 

Thanks List

 

 

 

[John Ranalletta]

See this Marvel thread.

 

See this Sea Foam thread.

 

[DrPaul]

I know BMW now sells it own version of Engine Treatment for $15/bottle. It is probably the Sea Foam relabelled.

It was recently speculated that the BMW product was actually rebranded Chevron Techron, a product I have used as a fuel additive in several bikes with very good results.

[RTCHIEF]

I had the same problem on an R1100GS. You have to start from the gas tank and work you way to the oil drain plug to get the crud out of the bike's system. First, quality high test gas, then start cleaning out the fuel system with Chevron Techron total fuel system cleaner, its the best, it will turn your oil black with crud faster than the others. Your crank case is probably contaminated as well, diesel oil will hold the crud in suspension.

 

When you ride the bike, take it up to rpm where it starts pinging, back it down a few miles per hour to where it stops pinging. You need to develop heat in the engine by putting a load on the engine and sustaining it. If you can get the heat indicator on the RID into the the next higher bar, your getting the job done. That will get the de carbonization process started. This doesn't get done on short rides. More like interstate for a couple hundred miles.

 

I monitored the bike by watching how fast I could increase the cruising speed until the pinging began, along with the used oil filters (after changing the oil let them drain out and see how heavy they are.)

Watch the color of the oil in the sight glass and see how long it takes before it turns BMW black.

 

Be patient, its gonna take 6-10,000 miles.

[Dan M]

We use Seafoam for decarboning regularly. Works pretty well. In some cases it wakes up slow oxygen sensors and catalysts.

On cars we pull it through a large vacuum port on a hot engine until it stalls or nearly stalls. Shut off the key and let it soak for 20-30 minutes. There is a lot of smoke on the restart. A LOT. Run it hard to clear everything up.

 

On a bike there may not be a large enough vacuum port to get a good soak. In that case a strong mix with the fuel is the alternative. Not as effective but it will soften the carbon.

[SAAB93driver]

BG Products makes a sytem used by mechanics called the Squid, it is an active combustion chamber cleaning device which decarbonizes the chamber and frees up rings as needed. See about halfway down the page http://www.bgtampabay.com/equipment.html

 

I don't have any experience with it, not sure it could be adapted to the the BMW motorcycle engine but I have read some positive reviews of it mostly for Northstar V-8's, and heard Bobby Likis from Car Clinic talk about it a couple of times on his show.